Wyke Farms: Please change your mind on your Superlight Cheese!

Way back when I discovered I had high cholesterol and became determined to get it down using diet rather than drugs, my friend Gill went to the Good Food Show and came back with some SuperLight cheese by small producer Wyke Farms. Hooray – created for a family member who had high cholesterol himself, this cheese had only 1.5% saturated fat. And.

And.

AND

AND

it tasted really nice. Like proper cheddar. Because it was proper cheddar. Cheese you would want to cut a slice off and actually eat (but would melt nicely on toast or on top of your pasta, too). I wrote about it in my book. I wrote about it in this blog.

First of all, I could get it from a few places locally. Then it narrowed down. But hey, it was OK, because I could still get it direct from Wyke Farms, in packs of three, for only £12. (And it worked really well, by the way – came in the post, never any problems, even in the summer.)

And then, I went to order it again and it was NO LONGER THERE.

I got in touch with Wyke Farms.

They had had to discontinue production.

Because even though it’s brilliant cheese with a good taste that has low enough saturated fat not to affect the cholesterol levels of those of us (and there are thousands of us, right) whose cholesterol is affected by their saturated fat consumption, the supermarkets, while stocking other Wyke Farms products, did not get behind this one. They don’t order it, people don’t know about it, people stop buying it …

PS Wyke Farms are in no way connected to this blog post. They will know about it about 2 minutes after I posted it, because I’m going to tell them, and they might share my plea if I’m lucky, but this was done entirely off my own bat.

PPS I did find an alternative – Eatlean Protein Cheese! It doesn’t grate quite as well as Wyke Farms and is quite hard, but I note they do a grated pack now. You can buy it at Waitrose, Morrisons and Asda as well as online from Eatlean and from myprotein.com

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Reblogging from my Adventures in Reading, Writing and Working from home blog to leverage the bigger audience for this blog. This is a plea to bring back the only cheese I could eat on my cholesterol-beating regime, which has now been discontinued. Please click through to the article, like, share, etc. Thank you!

I was so upset when Liz told me about this! I stock up every year at the NEC, buy online and snapped it up whenever I came across it in a shop. It is one of the loveliest cheeses I’ve ever tasted – and the fact that it is so low-fat is such a help in battling the cholesterol. Please reconsider, Wyke Farms! I know it will be a business decision in the end. Let’s all badger our independent cheese shops to stock this wonderful product.

Oh no. That is bad news. We must try to get the cheese back for you and others. I have never tried it but I would definitely try it I usually avoid cheese completely but would love to have stocks of this I could get locally too.

It’s really sad that enough people have not bought this delicious cheese to make it a profitable item for Wyke Farms. If only retailers would make clear how much lower in saturates it is than all other cheddars more people would try it and having done so would surely come back for more. As it is, they just don’t know about it. Could Wyke not persuade slightly more specialist shops like Waitrose and Ocado to stock it by getting their buyer to taste it.

It was stocked in a few places for a while, but they really didn’t get on board, supply was intermittent (the stores’ fault I’m sure) so people gave up buying it from them. I hope that Wyke Farms might consider an online-only service so we can order it direct. I am really missing it! Please do feel free to contact them and stores about it!

I just found out that Superlight was no longer on the Wyke Farms website and then found your blog. I have one pack left in my freezer and I don’t know what I will do now, having tried other low fat cheeses before finding this delicious, real cheese (which also cooks well) that was perfect for someone who is perpetually trying to maintain a new, lower weight! I used to find it in my local Coop until they stopped stocking it and have bought it from the website ever since. I will certainly be asking supermarkets if they will give it another try if it were available, and if not I will ask Wyke Farms if they will bring it back for online sales.

Thanks for your comment, Marian – do lobby them, and do tell them you found this article, too – I have told them about it and asked them a few times to reconsider, but they need proof that lots of people would still buy it online. Let me know how you get on!

This cheese used to be a permanent item on our weekly shopping list, was so disappointed when it disappeared from the shelves, but like you bought it direct from the site – and now it’s gone?!! Haven’t found another cheese like it, tasted like a fresh Parmesan, loved the slightly grainy texture, all in all it was delicious!!

We first bought this as lescol, which I’m sure got confused wth locol. So they relaunched it as superlight and for a while it was easy to find with its pink packaging – but then it vanished. Bought it from the website but now that is gone too. I suspect they were running down unsold stocks.
Which cheeses to make is a forward planning decision. I suspect even if they did reintroduce it, it could be a year before it went on sale. Are there enough of us loyal customers to make it worth their while? Only they know.
Perhaps they could at least tell us whether or not we are wasting our time. I for one would place a repeating subscription order if it encouraged them to reintroduce this unique cheese.
Paul Brazier

Thank you for taking the time to comment, Paul. Yes, I followed the same pathway with them! I’d certainly place a repeating subscription order with them if this was a solution to them knowing there was a constant market. I’m cheered by the fact of all these responses, and will be letting WF know about them!

I have just looked on Wyke Farm for 5% fat cheese . I used to buy it at Rosemary Conley class and then on line.. Thought I would buy some and see they have stopped production . Such a shame ,great flavour. Would be great if Wyke Farm reconsidered.

Yet another sad cheese lover at the loss of this great cheese, we contacted wykes, they said that it was not as good as it should be, and they were working on sorting it out. We loved it. I had it delivered, it was great, and healthy too. I now don’t buy cheese. Too much sat fat. Please bring it back!

Gutted…have been trying to hunt it down for a while and now this! You are absolutely right it tasted better than many cheeses and had such low saturated fat….come on Wyke there’s a huge market here but no one knew about it,,,,,

Yes, indeed, and there are so many of us – surely a good market for them! I am keeping Wyke Farms aware of the number of comments on this post, so hopefully they will see it is still a good market proposition.

I have just come back from Dubai and went to order my cheese, surprise it was not there!!. Worst fears realized when I found out that it had been discontinued. I used to order 3 large packs and freeze it. Kept really well and taste still superb from freezer. How about periodic production so we could all stock up. I agree with previous comments that this product was poorly marketed.

That’s a good idea on the periodic production. Wyke Farms are aware of this blog post and growing set of comments, so every one helps to convince them that it’s worth starting production up again (I hope!).

I too am deeply disappointed by the disappaearance of Supalite. I can only conclude that it was not directed towards the right market. We all know that supermarkets are not interested in healthy food products but what about the health food chains? I have written to Wyke Farms and suggested that they try this again, with a view to selling it via such national outlets as Holland & Barrett. Health food shops are not cheap but this is worth payiing a bit more for.

Yes I also use to buy it in my local coop, then no more. Then I bought on line, then no more, we also ate it to help cholesterol, but we liked it as cheese goes anyway. Please bring it back Mr Wykes!!!

At the moment, lo-col has deteriorated to a bitter rancid totally unpalatable substance. Ido hope they can put it right. In the meantime there is an opportunity for Wyke Farms product or something similar to hit the market.

I’ve only just seen this blog and I’ve been looking for LESKOL as it was when I used to buy it. I can’t believe they’ve stopped production – it was such a hit in my household. I’ve shared on social media, and I hope they bring it backxx